ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Olivier Tilloy <olivier.tilloy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 12:55 PM, Alberto Mardegan
<alberto.mardegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 14/01/2016 14:34, Jouni Helminen wrote:
>> I think the slightly increased affordance that accommodates both touch
>> and mouse is better, most of the time, than the possible confusion and
>> added complexity of visual changes between form factors.
>
> Maybe, but you are looking at the best case, where no UI change is
> needed. While indeed every app should aim at that, sometimes it's just
> unfeasible:
>
>> There are some applications  (3d modeling, photoshop etc) where you need
>> every mm of space because there is a lot going on  - but it's unlikely
>> you would run those on a small screen, so they will probably stay
>> desktop only, and use pointer optimised UI toolkits.
>
> Right, then suppose you are using such an application on your
> convertible laptop. At a certain point you fold the laptop screen and
> what you have now in your hands is essentially a tablet. What should the
> application do?
>
> As an app developer, what I would try to do is switch to a
> touch-optimized UI, where the application is still usable, just with
> wider controls and touch gestures (which I wouldn't use in desktop mode,
> as that would make people there less productive).
> What I'm arguing for, is that applications need to receive a hint that
> the device is now in tablet mode.

In that specific case, wouldn’t it be enough to know that there is an
active tocuh screen and no active keyboard/mouse (assuming the device
deactivates the keyboard and mouse when the laptop is folded)?